A broad range of forms of electronic video recording devices including video tape recorders and electronic cameras have recently been developed. In particular, video recording devices with large monitors for recording the camera operator while providing direct feedback on a screen visible to the camera operator, so-called self-recording (or facing recording), are drawing more attention.
A video recording device of the prior art related to the present invention is explained next.
FIGS. 3A to 3C show perspective views of the electronic video recording device of the prior art. FIG. 3A shows a front perspective, and FIGS. 3B and 3C show back perspectives. A video recording camera 101 is disposed around an upper corner of a front face 102a of a main body 102, and the video recording camera 101 has an object lens 103. Optical information entering the video recording camera 101 through the object lens 103 is converted to electronic video information. The main body 102 records the electronic video information output from the video recording camera 101 on a housed video tape (not illustrated). A monitor 105 converts the electronic video information output from the video recording camera 101 or the electronic video information reproduced from a recorded video tape into optical information, and displays it on a monitor screen 105a. The monitor 105 is, as shown in FIG. 3C, rotatably attached to the main body 102 with a rotary mechanism disposed at an upper part of the main body 102. A microphone 106 is disposed beneath the object lens 103 on the front face 102a of the main body 102 for recording sound from approximately the same direction as the optical axis of the object lens 103. The main body 102 records sound information, along with the aforementioned electronic video information, on a video tape.
The operation of the electronic video recording device of the prior art as configured above is explained next.
In ordinary recording, that is, when the camera operator records subjects other than himself/herself by looking at a monitor screen, the object lens 103 is facing the subject, as shown in FIGS. 4A to 4C, and the camera operator can confirm what is being recorded by looking at the monitor screen 105a. Since the monitor 105 is rotatable away from the main body, the camera operator can easily look at the monitor screen 105a at any angle particularly at an angle which allows recording from a high position downward (so-called high angle, as shown in FIG. 4A), to record ordinarily by holding the electronic video recording device around in front of the chest (the so-called chest angle shown in FIG. 4B), and to record from a low position upward (the so-called low angle shown in FIG. 4C).
In "self-recording" in which the camera operator is recorded while looking at his/her own image on the monitor screen 105a, the camera operator can confirm what to be recorded on the monitor screen 105a by rotating the monitor 105 to the front to the side of the object lens 103 because the monitor 105 is rotatable apart from the main body 102. As already known, some existing devices are equipped with the function of inverting the video image on the monitor screen 105a by detecting the rotation angle.
Another example of the prior art is an electronic video recording device in which the camera operator operates and holds an area of the recording camera by hand, and the monitor is rotatably supported by the video recording camera together with the main body.
The above configurations of the prior art, however, have the following inconveniences:
1) To secure the distance required by the optical system of the video recording camera and also assure that the thickness of the main body is sufficient to allow it to be held comfortably in the hand, the length of the video recording camera needs to be longer than the thickness of the main body, making the camera protrude significantly from the main body. PA1 2) Since the object lens and the main body are held toward the direction of the subject to be recorded, the angle of the wrist required to hold the device changes according to recording angle, and there are some angles which result in difficulties in holding the device. PA1 3) Since the object lens always remains in a lateral position even when not recording anything, the object lens is likely to be directly exposed to bright light including direct sunlight, resulting in flare and other problems characteristic of CCD image pickup elements in the video recording camera, or dust is likely to attach to the object lens.